The March 2015 issue of PC Pro magazine has an interesting in-depth article this month on the Regin conspiracy. As this is quite old news I didn’t write a news article, but I though it was sufficiently interesting to post a link in the forum.

Synopsis:Regin is the name given to a highly sophisticated piece of spyware, which appears to have been developed by GCHQ & NSA.

It first hit the headlines in November 2014, but it was apparent that the major antivirus companies had been aware of it for up to 5 years. Although there software was detecting Regin, and in some cases blocking parts of it, they had chosen not to tackle the infection or alert users.

Regin’s use was highly targeted, but not necessarily at those you might expect. The targets appear to have been mainly academics working in computer security & cryptography, such as noted cryptographer Jean-Jacques Quisquater.

After Regin became public knowledge last year, antivius companies were quick to publish their own research into Regin. But why had they stayed silent so long?

The article seems to have disappeared (or was never on?) the magazine’s web site, so here is a link to an alternative source:

Just weeks ago, SPIEGEL published the source code of an NSA malware program known internally as QWERTY. Now, experts have found that it is none other than the notorious trojan Regin, used in dozens of cyber attacks around the world.